so i had this idea that might help alot of people but it only works if people decide to work together on it

the basic idea is an open source game template and free advertising space for your game

heres the plan people contribute code to build a project just like any other open source project but this is for a game, a game template and what they get in return is a place to advertise their game for free more exposure for your game = more sales plain and simple

it wont work exactly like a full game but more or less multiple example projects kinda of like code snippets but their fully working examples that you can download and run this way people can jump right it and start working with the code snippets and see how they work

if enough people contribute to something like this you could in theory build a whole game from putting together the code you want and possible experiment with new types of game play

for example:lets say some people contribute code for an anti gravity gun what does it do? idk use your imagination maybe it attracts a bunch of objects into one spot or maybe it works like a grappling hook and you get pulled to where you shoot it

ok so you got the code for that and then you see some code for something else like a photon blaster (im making this up as i go its an example) so this photon blaster pushes you back when you shoot it

now lets say theres a boss that uses one of the guns and you use the other what will the gameplay be like ? only one way to find out

possibilities are endless imagine your shoting one while driving a car or useing a jet pack

people could create some really interesting game play with this

ofcourse we could make code snippets not just for gameplay but also things like supporting different screen res or other technical stuff

only thing that would be left would be making the graphics of the game thats always unique so people could work more on that and less on the code

this of course this is just an idea right now i wanted to share it with everyone and see if maybe anyone is interested in starting a project like this

oh and the advertising your game part would work like this ...people will request code snippets in the issues area then when someone submits that snippet they are allowed to have their game posted as a project made with libgdx snippets/templates or if they want to just submit some code that isn't requested that works toobasic idea is just contribute and get permission to have your game permanently up there

this is just an idea right now

let me know if...if you think its a good or bad ideaif you would be interested in contributingor if you just want to share your opinion

something i seem to hear alot is to use the K.I.S.S method (keep it simple stupid) and avoid reinventing the wheel

alot of games out there are exactly the same so why do we need to reinvent the wheel every single time when we can all benefit from helping each other out by sharing code take a look at angry birds they didnt share their code but therse tons of games out there that try to copy it and they just change the art ... and super mario there tons of sidescroller games with different art sonic megaman etc etc list goes on for ever

its obvious that the only thing that makes a game unique is the gameplay, art , and story if your game is going to be the same as millions of other copies out there then it dosen't hurt to share the could in fact it could help you more then you can imagine take a look at this

theres a game called replica island the guy that made it shared the entire project and made the game free he got 5 million downloads it was released in 2010 he has a blog he posted info on the development process (not really noob friendly more expert theory talk) he also did some presentations on the project told alot of people about it and the presentations are on youtube which reached even more people but the game is free no ads no in game items to buy 5 million downloads thats a slap in the face but who knows why he didnt montize it maybe cause its open source

so lets look back at this code snippet idea i had you post your project here where tons of people will see it you help contribute the project grows more people know about it word spreads etc etc i think you get the idea

1. The framework needs to be coded extremely well and thoroughly tested. It would also need to be written in such a way that anything can be added without having to change anything in the framework.

2. You are relying on the community to make the game. That doesn't happen. The game makes the community. To succeed you would need to take this idea to a community of a similar game that already exists.

But even with those hurdles it can still be an interesting idea.Really the hard part is getting it started and getting interest to keep it going.

1. The framework needs to be coded extremely well and thoroughly tested. It would also need to be written in such a way that anything can be added without having to change anything in the framework.

2. You are relying on the community to make the game. That doesn't happen. The game makes the community. To succeed you would need to take this idea to a community of a similar game that already exists.

1.i think half way through i was talking about a game template then i switch to saying code snippets cause i realized the same thing you cant make a game template with a community like you said it needs to be tested etc etc ... but now if your talking about code snippets which people can write quickly and can all be seperated into working sample projects then people can take the code form those projects and use them in their own game so in a way its not really a game template but more like huge library of code snippets that people can just look up what they want and save alot of time not having to code things from scratch

it might work for small things like lets say making a character jump but not so much for something more complex like a skill tree for an rpg game

2.lets say we have a project with snippets/examples of code specificly for a 2d mario style game then we have another set for rpg zelda/pokemon like game ... it might work if the code is focused for a specific genre of games

getting something like this started shouldn't be that hard as long as we keep it simple like for a mario type game we have something like this in a projectit loads up the level a simple flat level a character sprite and controls on screen (lets say its a touch screen) level is maybe twice the size of the screen so the player can see it scroll like a mario game

so you have your very basic template right there controls make the character move and jump ok there template done so now the fun part people take this template and add a small part of code for example lets say the ability to fly with a jet pack be it a pick up item or just an already equipped ability

now you have this template game with something new in it and its saved as a whole new project you have the main template and the jetpack project as a branch of the template (branches being the working code snippets)

now imagine this goes on with hundreds of bits of code for a game of this type people can have access to enormous amount of game code that you can just test out and use in your own project

of course you need to go in understand the code and then code it into your own project not just drag and drop thats just crazy

alot of games out there are exactly the same so why do we need to reinvent the wheel every single time when we can all benefit from helping each other out by sharing code

That is true. Good examples of this are LWJGL, LibGDX and other open source frameworks. I'm personally very grateful for the work that the makers of those frameworks and libraries did, and how they share it for the benefit of all.

Somehow I feel that what you are describing is pretty much what the JGO forum is: a place to help each other and to share code, to get feedback or attention for the indie games you develop. It's a cool idea you have, but aside from the massive complexity of such an undertaking (it's not KISS at all), I'd say what you propose is already reality, although in a somewhat different form.

What exactly is the point of a game template? Most people here already have a template they use themselves.

its not the template that your going to use, its the examples of code ... the template would just be a way for people to create a working prototype of a specific gameplay/action they want the player or the game to have

like angry birds in space lets say theres some code for the gravity field that surrounds the asteroids and you stick that in a mario game now you have a mario in space level (mario being your character from your game) now give him a jet pack and a space suit and you have mario in space and you just created a whole new level for your game with a small bit of code (of course you need all the assets but the general idea is there)

for an rpg style game a template might work better then a bunch of code snippets since its usally more based on the story and skill tree, for the code snippets maybe take a look at frogger he moves on tiles and in an rpg you do the same so why not create a character that can use a frog to travel across the map faster

alot of games out there are exactly the same so why do we need to reinvent the wheel every single time when we can all benefit from helping each other out by sharing code

That is true. Good examples of this are LWJGL, LibGDX and other open source frameworks. I'm personally very grateful for the work that the makers of those frameworks and libraries did, and how they share it for the benefit of all.

Somehow I feel that what you are describing is pretty much what the JGO forum is: a place to help each other and to share code, to get feedback or attention for the indie games you develop. It's a cool idea you have, but aside from the massive complexity of such an undertaking (it's not KISS at all), I'd say what you propose is already reality, although in a somewhat different form.

it does kinda seem like garys mod i never played it before but i heard about it

alot of game frameworks copy from eachother just like games the frameworks share their code and some people have blogs that share their game code too but when the game gets really big like replica island it turns into a mess trying to figure out what everything does especially because some people have different coding strategies then other ... they sometimes write up a little system that makes it easier for themselves but for someone who dosen't know about their system it just seems confusing ... break up the game into super small examples and you wont need a special system to keep it together, people would be able to jump right in and use the code they need

yea its true it does seem like its already been done but its kinda messy look at the code snippets/code shared area of the forum its just one really big list of threads no real structure just random stuff people submit, its nobodys fault its just a forum, now lets say we make a system where we can organize all the code this is the part that seems like (it's not KISS at all) but what if we just keep it simple we need three things: the base templateand two sections for the codetechnical code and gameplay codethose two sections would just have the game template with a small amount of code like i mentioned before jetpack example or gravity asteroid whatever people submit

Cobbling together code snippets, a game does not make. Also, punctuation.

sorry i didn't use any punctuation ... im not saying the code snippets will make a game but they will be used more like a resource for people to use them in their own projects snippets of code are already all over the place this would just give people a way to organize it and request code etc etc

EDIT**something i forgot to mention was the advertising your game part

when you advertise your game you post it up somewhere for everyone to see be it TV, billboards, a forum, or those little rectangle advertisements inside of apps

problems is that if your sharing your game on a forum your not exactly reaching a direct audience that might be interested in your game

lets say you make an rpg and you share it on the forum ... well sure theres probably a few rpg players out there after all everyone here plays games and is trying to make games but lets say you post up your game on a website that has a strong focus on rpg games and almost all the people that vist that site are looking for new games to play ... now you would be hitting your target audience

so how does this fit in with everything else ?

well take a look at other websites theres some that are app review websites theres some flash game websites(browser games)theres even some top mmorpg game websites where people rate the best game

alot of review websites charge people money so they can have them review the app and its usually really expensive

so we make a website the reviews apps and games for free this would give people incentive to help contribute to the project

they contribute a small snippet of code and they are allowed to submit a game to the site. the site then sends that game to your target audience through a newsletter, youtube videos, podcast, social networking etc etcthe point is each of these systems is separated into a genre of games the players are interested in

it starts with the newsletter people sign up for it and they request the game genres that they like, now the newsletter sends out information of new games only to people who are actually interested in the game genre

this would beat app review sites which just feed random games to people potentially missing the target audience

this is just an IDEA right now...with a website, the KISS method gets completely thrown out the window for who ever is running the show but theoretically this should be possible, there might still be a few problems with this idea here and there but overall what do you guys think?

It's like saying "Lets make a base for a tool that can have any attachments!" and then giving people a few planks of wood/sheets of metal/whatever.

It won't work.

If you want to do something like that, make a handle. Then people have something to work from. While there will still be incompatibilities, they will be due to parts overlapping, not an incompatible base.

its not a base tool with infinite attachments. idk if you guys are missing the point here but its not supposed to be system where everything is compatible either thats just ridiculous (it would only be compatible if you make it compatible) lets say you got example A and example B you can't just smash them together you need to go in and modify it to work with your own project

its more or less a huge set of example projects that people can strip apart and use the parts they want for their own project but without having to dig through a complete project and spending hours trying to understand that programmers coding style

every example project would be small to the point where the example is just a specific feature that is being showcased does that make more sense?

Most people won't care for 1 more feature and could simply do it themselves, if bothered to do it at all.

And those that do would most likely be uncapable of putting it into their code.

The idea you're giving it something that most developers do anyway, just in their own different way. Developers are tinkerers, so will always be testing features to see if they're good or not. The testing is done in their own projects so they can actually do something with it. Your idea, if successful, would distract people from their own games and then nobody would ever get anything done.

Most people won't care for 1 more feature and could simply do it themselves, if bothered to do it at all.

but then i thought to myself its not going to only be one feature on there, theres going to be hundreds of features. people would be coming up with new ideas for games way faster since they would be able to see so many possibilities right in front of them it would basically be a gold mine

I think what hellrazer21 is suggesting isn't a codebase where you can take stuff and put those stuff together as is... How I understand it is that we could have a collection of code references to see how things were made/implemented and use that - maybe even copy and paste parts of it - in our own games. What people would be using for the most part is the general logic and not the exact code. Although if the exact code works, they could use that too.

Although if I understand that correctly, it would merely be an expedited version of what already happens in most coding forums: People asking how to do stuff and getting answers (for the most part). Also, a good bit of Googling can also do wonders.

Like... if I wanted a reference for simulating a balloon in Box2D, I can google "simulate balloon box2d" and voila! --- lots of usable search results in the first page.

Most people won't care for 1 more feature and could simply do it themselves, if bothered to do it at all.

but then i thought to myself its not going to only be one feature on there, theres going to be hundreds of features. people would be coming up with new ideas for games way faster since they would be able to see so many possibilities right in front of them it would basically be a gold mine

Fixing 100s of features to work together would be a nightmare. What I meant was with the amount of work it takes to get A & B working together, you may as well write it yourself.

And as said by heisenbergman, this already happens.You just need to use google.

To conclude my POV, any benefits are stamped down by all the extra work and in the end you are just left with a bunch of ideas.

Why not make a site that allows people to contribute ideas instead?

EDIT: I'm not totally against the idea. I'm skeptical of your way of putting the idea in action.

Fixing 100s of features to work together would be a nightmare. What I meant was with the amount of work it takes to get A & B working together, you may as well write it yourself.

EDIT: I'm not totally against the idea. I'm skeptical of your way of putting the idea in action.

ok thanks for clearing that up btw when i say theres 100s of feature you dont need all of them only the ones you like and yes you could just code things yourself but not everyone is an expert sometimes theres things even experts dont know how to code something like this could be useful for both newbies and expert coders

it would merely be an expedited version of what already happens in most coding forums: People asking how to do stuff and getting answers (for the most part). Also, a good bit of Googling can also do wonders.

Like... if I wanted a reference for simulating a balloon in Box2D, I can google "simulate balloon box2d" and voila! --- lots of usable search results in the first page.

At least that's how I understand it.

exactly "merely be an expedited version of what already happens in most coding forums"

google works fine too but it would be nice for everyone to have a place to go to when looking for bits of code it would be like a check here first kind of place if what your looking for isn't there then you leave a request and while you wait go to google

you could try and request for someone to code something for you in a forum but thats really rare, people just ignore noobs asking for code and the code that people do write for other people just ends up getting lost in the forum after sometime but yea dude you actually understand the general idea

Just be aware that the things I have mentioned are important to consider, and failure to do so may result in failure of the entire project.

If you really want to do this, go ahead.

yea i know i am considering what you said "I'm skeptical of your way of putting the idea in action." kinda got me thinking this needs a better system to keep everything together and organized maybe a website when people submit a new example project the also submit information on the project some screenshots or video if possible project gets put on github or google code if they want they can have a link (in the about author section)to their blog website or whatever so they benefit from sharing code

now if people want to search for some code they can go onto the site and search for whatever their looking for

on the website the code can be organized into sections by genre 2d side scroller, rpg, isometric etc etc

the other website for advertising the games would just be a whole other beast reviews,rating, comments videos, info on the games links to the creators site and with all the things like newletters social networking youtube people can subscirbe,like ,sign up to the things they want tricky part here would be sending only the genres people want to see so they would have to sign up for them specificallybasically making several accounts for specific genres and platforms that would be the only way to hit the exact target audience the whole advertising seems a bit far fetched it might make or break everything else

it would merely be an expedited version of what already happens in most coding forums: People asking how to do stuff and getting answers (for the most part). Also, a good bit of Googling can also do wonders.

Like... if I wanted a reference for simulating a balloon in Box2D, I can google "simulate balloon box2d" and voila! --- lots of usable search results in the first page.

At least that's how I understand it.

exactly "merely be an expedited version of what already happens in most coding forums"

google works fine too but it would be nice for everyone to have a place to go to when looking for bits of code it would be like a check here first kind of place if what your looking for isn't there then you leave a request and while you wait go to google

you could try and request for someone to code something for you in a forum but thats really rare, people just ignore noobs asking for code and the code that people do write for other people just ends up getting lost in the forum after sometime but yea dude you actually understand the general idea

I think a good number of programmers that "ignore" noobs asking for code are just doing so to avoid spoonfeeding, and spoonfeeding is not the best way to learn/educate someone not only in game development, but in pretty much anything that requires learning.

To be honest, that would be one thing negative about this easy-access codebase reference that you're proposing: It would hinder more than it would help because it would be a vehicle to spoonfeed noobs chunks of code that some wouldn't necessarily take the time to understand.

You could create ads that would display with all your snippets of code.

It would be a good incentive to contribute, also causing 'the more you contribute, the more exposure you get' automatically.

@heisenbergman: There will always be people that just stick with spoon-feeding. Most people ignore them. A site like this would not cause any trouble as the n00bs can be ignored as usual. A lack of a geedback system would be good too.

But overall, the time spent creating such a site could be used to just create a multi-authored blog where people can just post snippets of pseudo-code (think Ludum Dare website but with code snippets). Also has the advantage of being cross-language. Has everything you specified except that there is no actual project that works are based on. You can just implement whatever is in the pseudo code you like into whatever project.And IMHO, that is the best solution.

Hmmm... This is an interesting idea. However, to have it devolve into any type of game would be... wishful thinking. Actually, thinking about it, there is a place where you can actually search up open source code snippets (that isn't Google).

I mean, there is a lot of open source code available. However, each coding style is different in its own way and let's face it, we all have our own ways of implementing things. If you do plan to do this, make it easy to find the code snippets you are looking for and have very good documentation for it. The standards to keep the project organized needs to be very strict, or you'll have a tangled mess that n00bs wouldn't want to touch. You also might want to consider making it fully open source as well, though that is a given given the nature of this project.

Good idea, but you really have to be careful that it doesn't get messy.

Hmmm... This is an interesting idea. However, to have it devolve into any type of game would be... wishful thinking. Actually, thinking about it, there is a place where you can actually search up open source code snippets (that isn't Google).

I mean, there is a lot of open source code available. However, each coding style is different in its own way and let's face it, we all have our own ways of implementing things. If you do plan to do this, make it easy to find the code snippets you are looking for and have very good documentation for it. The standards to keep the project organized needs to be very strict, or you'll have a tangled mess that n00bs wouldn't want to touch. You also might want to consider making it fully open source as well, though that is a given given the nature of this project.

Good idea, but you really have to be careful that it doesn't get messy.

maybe i should clear this up since everyone thinks you cant make a game out of this

the idea is the same as using example project from random blogs you look at the code learn from it and use what you like

the template would just be something people can jump right into and start creating new example projects they wouldn't be building ontop of other example projects to create a whole game

the only person building a game is the person looking at the projects learning from each one

so theres two people the contributor and the user the contributor makes example projects (not full blown games) just simple projects that show case a specific feature that can be implemented into a game for example lets say a character that jumps and on double tap/hold of the jump button he flys with a jet pack

then the user would take a look at this project and see how its being done and if the user likes this feature they can use this in their own project not by copy and paste but by writing the code to work with their own project

now before someone else jumps up and says "Most people won't care for 1 more feature and could simply do it themselves, if bothered to do it at all." like HeroesGraveDev said in another post

lets take a look at why a project like this would even be worth starting

i know that most examples i mentioned are simple so imagine its for something more complex, for example life like physics and damage for a racing game (its just an example i know this might be difficult to even be shared and used properly)

for the sake of the example lets pretend this is something that can be shared as easy as a .jar, you throw it into your project and bam you got physics now follow the documentation for how to setup your cars and your well on your way to making AAA games (i know its way more complex then that but this is just an example) ok so how do we get to this point we start small and simple, share code that is easy enough for anyone to write and use eventually when the idea picks up momentum and lots of people are using this system we move to more complex projects,starting with 2d games then 2.5d games then 3d games each time we move up we bring in a new game engine or framework starting with libgdx

-why should we start with libgdx? because its free, you can build for multiple platforms, you can make 2d and 3d games (if im not mistaken), no royalties for distributing

-so what happens if everyone contributes to this sharing project? you start to attract alot of noobs (its not a bad thing) they eventually learn and get better, they begin to spread the word about libgdx and sharing project, libgdx then starts to get more contributors, libgdx gets better and better, everyone continues to share code but at some point it will begin to slow down, thats when we open the doors to other game engines and the cycle would continue (eventually you get the walmart effect like in southpark and all the mom and pop shops/game engines get shut down... jk jk only thing that would probably be affected by this would be stores like the unity asset store and maybe bloggers who sell small projects)

i forgot to mention the advertising part, people would be able to say/see stuff in the description of each project like who made it and links to blogs/ tutorial websites, their games or whatever they want to share. not only will this be a way to give them credit but also a way for them to create exposure for whatever they want to share

theres also the idea of having an advertising network that sends your game to the exact target audience. (rpg games to rpg players etc etc) this would probably come in later on since theres things that need to be worked out like how do you avoid advertising a bunch of half star, low rating games to people because that would kill the system instantly(people wouldn't use the system if all they see is lame games) it needs to be regulated by players for players, like a rating system. highly rated games get advertised. if you allow people to pay to advertise their game, then they might just choke the system because they want their game to be there forever people would get tired of seeing the same game and the system stops working. i know you could just give a time limit but they'll keep coming back and if you reject them then you lose money either way you lose something but only if your goal is to make money. so what if the system is automated, free and regulated by the public now you have games being advertised to their specific target audience, and the audience only sees the best of the best ... games would be pushed out through newsletters, social networking, youtube etc etc ... -how long would games be up there? until new games push the old ones down the list but they would still be up there forever for everyone to see ... -the purpose of this would have been to use it as an incentive to get people to share code in return for getting their games advertised to the target audience, this could only work if balanced correctly using a paid system and also a free system, people submit code, they get a free ride, others can pay, if they want, for the same system ...both paid and free ads of games would be shown side by side... revenue would be used to pay the team maintaining the system... there is another way to keep it free without paid ads, using a volunteer system might work better if volunteers get their games in the ad network as a reward for volunteering and the system should be self sustaining just add some strict rules,time limits, violators will be banned,etc etc, instead of a paid section it would just be a "games by volunteers" section or whatever you want to call it. people my be more compelled to support their projects because they know that without them this whole system wouldn't be possible...in case anyone thinks volunteers might be a security risk there needs to be someone of a higher rank to approve of everything before it gets submitted/changed etc etc

-so how do we keep everything from getting messy? as far as code being shared well lets look at the Ohloh code website, btw thanks for sharing it, a few things to note were thatthey have tons of different programming languages and users, you need to search for keywords in the code its self, and the code is stored in different locations

ok so we can keep the code organized by using a system like that but also add a few more things like a description, screenshots or video of the projects in action (if possible), a rating system. maybe some more features later on

i know when i started this thread it was about small example projects and avoiding big ones but that just wouldn't last long enough to be helpful for anyone maybe it would have helped a few people but eventually people would just forget about it ... if you extend the range from small snippets to full blown projects and add all the game engines then everybody can have access to code they can use in their projects and when their done with their games they can spread the word with the ad network and the entire system is free

overall that should be everything thats needed to get something like this to work. only thing missing is the supporters,contributors and volunteers... if theres enough people that want to see something like this happen then it will

then the user would take a look at this project and see how its being done and if the user likes this feature they can use this in their own project not by copy and paste but by writing the code to work with their own project

then the user would take a look at this project and see how its being done and if the user likes this feature they can use this in their own project not by copy and paste but by writing the code to work with their own project

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